How To Create Good Survey Questions - 6 Tips And Examples

 1. Keep it simple

The more difficult your language use is in a questionnaire, the greater the chances are that your respondents won’t know how to answer the question.

 2. Be clear

Some survey questions or statements contain vague or ambiguous terms. For example, if you type a statement “I am happy with the quality of the service”, you should discuss what quality of service you mean exactly. Does it mean that you were helped in a friendly way, that you are happy with the final results or that you liked that you were helped quickly? By dividing these questions, you will get a better and more detailed view of what your customer really thinks about your service.

 3. Keep it short

Long questions are more difficult to read. Also, your respondents will find it difficult to decide what you would like to know. Keep a close eye on the length of your survey questions.

 4. One survey question at a time

Some researchers have the tendency to ask multiple questions at a time. For example “What did you think of this research and the questions?” Are you asking someone about the research in generally or about the questions? This can confuse the respondents and  mess up your data. A good example that SurveyMonkey gives on their site: “How organised and interested was the speaker?” Maybe the respondent found the speaker very interesting, but also very chaotic. In such a case it is difficult to answer the question in one scale. Je can better divide this question into two: How organised was the speaker? (1) and how interesting did you find the speaker? (2)

 5. Be consistent in scale questions

Scale questions are questions where the respondent gives an answer in a scale. This is mostly a scale of 5, 7 or 10 points. It is important that you think about the type of scale you use fo a question (why a 5-point scale and not 7?), but also be consistent in the order of your scale answers. Ask your respondent to fill in a 5-point scale from negative to positive (1= really bad, 5= excellent), but if you turn the meaning of the scale points at a later time (1= excellent, 5= really bad), it can cause confusion. It is also confusing if you present a 5-point scale and in a subsequent question a 7-point scale. Be as consistent as possible in this area.

 6. No answer

Keep in mind that a respondent may not have an answer to your question, for example, because he has no experience or he doesn’t know what you are talking about. Think carefully about possible answers as ‘not applicable’, ‘i don’t know’, and ‘applicable’. If your survey contains, for example this statement: “I am happy with my car insurance”. If you give your respondents a 5-point scale (totally disagree to totally agree), but forget to put the not applicable option, what will someone who doesn’t have a car insurance fill in?

Learn more?

Besides these tips, there are more tips and tricks in the drafting of survey questions. In a similar article, for example, Qualtrics named 7 errors you should not make when drafting survey questions. We hope that this report will help you make good and clear questionnaire. Do you want to know more about creating (online) surveys or do you need help with our online survey tool? You can always contact us via the contact form on our contact page or send an email to support@enquete.com.